


Time Does Funny Things

by Hotyoghurtonametalbin



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Background TimSasha, M/M, No Smut, Not Beta Read, Time Travel, jonmartin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26790256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hotyoghurtonametalbin/pseuds/Hotyoghurtonametalbin
Summary: Jon and Martin travel back in time to stop the apocalypse. They have no plan and their only method of travel is through Helen's hallways. General chaos ensues.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 37
Kudos: 141





	1. Chapter 1

Jon sat alone in his office. This was hardly unusual however today it seemed a little too quiet for his taste. That was just too bad though. Afterall, he would never dream of going out to join the others. Tim with his dumb jokes he tried his hardest not to laugh at, Sasha and her welcoming smiles that made him want to stay and talk and Martin… Martin and his concerned eyes and his small smiles. Martin who cared too much. He would almost certainly ask Jon how he was and he would sound like he was genuinely invested in Jon’s answer. And Jon was not ready to face that. No, Jon was just fine by himself, in his office. This is how it always was and that was fine. He was fine.

He took a sip of the tea that sat on his desk, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Martin’s. He felt a twinge of guilt about the cardboard takeaway cup in his hands. He knew it was silly, he had no obligation to only drink tea from Martin. He was perfectly entitled to a takeaway tea from the cafe down the street if he wanted one. No it was stupid, he had no reason not to drink this tea. Sure it was mediocre but he still spent money on it and Martin had no right to be offended about him drinking tea made by someone else. 

He picked up the tea he’d barely started and dropped it into the bin. 

It was a few hours later that Tim knocked on his door. In typical Tim fashion he didn’t wait for an answer before entering, pushing his way inside seemingly in a hurry,

“Yes, what is it Tim?”

Jon asked, he didn’t look up from his work,

“Um we might have a bit of a problem?”

Tim’s voice was panicky and slightly croaky, Jon looked up, irritation written all over his face,

“Don’t tell me we have another ‘dog in the archives situation’ Tim.”

He said with a sigh. As his eyes finally locked on Tim’s face he was surprised to see how pale the man looked,

“Tim what’s going on?”

He asked more forcefully. Tim finally opened his mouth and uttered words Jon never wanted to hear,

“Something’s trying to come up through the tunnels.”


	2. Chapter Two

Jon, Martin, Sasha and Tim stood around the trapdoor entrance to the tunnels that snaked under the institute. A faint banging could be heard on the other side of the door.

“Should we get Elias?”

Martin asked nervously,

“No.”

Jon shook his head,

“What could he even do?”

Sasha interjected,

“He hardly leapt into action during the Prentiss situation.”

They all fell silent at that, memories of those months spent in fear and those hours that they thought it might finally be the end for them all. Sasha regretted mentioning it, they all got by day to day in the archives by dancing around the subject and pretending nothing ever happened. Pretending that this was just a normal job and they were normal employees. Pretending that they didn’t notice Tim’s sudden affinity for long sleeves, him swapping out his shorts for jeans. They were getting good at pretending.

Unfortunately for them, the knocking on the trapdoor was not something that they could simply pretend wasn’t happening. It’s much harder to ignore the present than it is to ignore the past and the banging was growing louder, more insistent, like whoever- or whatever was trying to get in was beginning to get frustrated. 

Tim finally tore the group away from their thoughts,

“I agree with Sash, what’s Elias gonna do? He’s more concerned about us filing lawsuits when we get hurt than he is about actually keeping us away from danger in the first place.”

Martin had to concede that he did have a point, he still clearly remembered the meeting they’d been called into where Elias tried to “subtly hint” that they better not file any kind of lawsuit against the institute for letting them get attacked by worms. That was fine by Martin, It wasn't as if he had the money for a lawyer anyway. He doubted any of them did on archival assistant salaries,

“Okay sure, Elias is a no go. What are we supposed to do about this then?”

They all looked at each other before all of their eyes eventually landed on Jon. He looked surprised,

“Why are looking at me?”

“You’re the boss,”

Tim shrugged,

“And you’ve read the most statements. Whad’ya reckon is down there?”

Jon thought for a moment,

“I don’t know.”

He finally replied,

“I mean we don’t even know if it’s related to the statements, it could be something completely normal.” 

“For fuck’s sake Jon. We work in the archives and there’s a suspicious banging coming from the trapdoor to the spooky tunnels.”

Jon bristled at Tim’s choice of words but he didn’t say anything,

“Honestly Jon, our job is to collect and organize stories about the supernatural. I mean we were besieged by worms for god’s sake and now there’s a suspicious knocking coming from the tunnels trying to get into the archives- I think it’s probably related to the statements!”

“Alright, alright,”

Jon relented,

“It’s probably related to the statements, but I still don’t have any idea what it is! It’s not like there’s many statements lying around related to mysterious knocking on trapdoors.”

“There was that one guy,”

Martin said cautiously,

“Paul MacKenzie? Something kept turning his door handle in the night or something? Could be related maybe?”

“I suppose…”

Jon said,

“It sounds kind of similar.”

Sasha gave Martin a smile, but then her face fell,

“But even if it is connected that doesn’t really tell us anything useful, we don’t even know what was doing that to Paul.”

“We don’t even know if Paul was telling the truth.”

“Oh not you questioning all of the statements again.”

Tim rolled his eyes,

“I don’t get how you can still doubt them so much when we literally got eaten by worms.”

“Well that only proves the Prentiss statements! Any of the others could still be fake!”

“Guys…”

Martin said,

“Jon I don’t get it, why do you want to disbelieve the statements so badly?”

“Guys…”

“I don’t want to disbelieve the statements but half of them just have no proof! Paul MacKenzie’s door didn’t even have a lock!”

“So why would he lie about th-”

“GUYS!”

“What Martin?”

Jon snapped,

“The knocking stopped.”

The others fell silent, Martin was right, the knocking had ceased,

“Maybe it went away?”

“Why would it just give up?”

“Could’ve gotten tired, all that knocking probably tired their arms out- If they even have arms.”

“Tim don’t.”

“Well… what do we do about it, do you think it will come back?”

“Probably, that didn’t sound like something that would just give up and leave.”

“Maybe we should cover the trapdoor with something, make it harder for it to get through?”

“Good plan, those filing cabinets are pretty heavy, one of them could probably do it.”

“Won’t Elias wonder why there’s a filing cabinet in the middle of the room?”

“Screw him. You know he doesn’t come down here unless he absolutely has to anyway. Now give me a hand will you? This thing is heavy.”

Martin moved to help Tim who was struggling to move one of the many heavy filing cabinets from it’s spot against the wall. Right as he reached it there was a sudden bang form the center of the room. The group all whipped around to see the trapdoor lying open against the floor. A thin figure emerged tailed by wisps of fog. There was a collective gasp from the group as they recognised the face of the stranger. Climbing out from the tunnel below them was… Jon?

The group stared at this clone of Jon as he stepped into the archive. Finally Tim broke the silence by vocalising what they were all thinking,

“What the fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Paul MacKenzie is from MAG 27 A Sturdy Lock.  
> You have no idea the amount of self restraint it took for me to not post this chapter immediately after the first one because apparently the only serotonin I can get anymore is from positive reviews on this fic. I am trying my best to stick to a weekly schedule so I don't immediately burn through all of the chapters I've already written. but we'll see how that goes.  
> I really appreciate all the support so far,  
> ILY guys :)


	3. Chapter Three

Jon stood frozen, just staring at this version of himself. It looked just like him but still… different somehow. His hair was longer and matted, shot through with even more gray than the hair on his own head was. His frame was skinnier, more frail and all of his clothing hung loose on his tiny form. He looked as if he would snap in half at any moment. He appeared shorter though that may have just been because of the pronounced hunch of his shoulders. His body was littered with a series of scars, a slash across his throat, a burn on his hand, the same silvery holes that littered Jon’s own skin. But most noticeable were his eyes. His eyes were red and tired yet the irises looked brighter. Jon had never been one for staring at his own reflection but he was sure that the green of his eyes had never been that intense.

This new version of himself stared back, but he did not look confused at what he saw, more resigned, as if he had hoped it wouldn’t come to this but he knew it might.

“What the fuck.”

Tim repeated, a little more quietly this time. The new Jon shifted his gaze away from Jon and he felt himself sag, as if this new Jon’s eyes had been boring down to his very soul and digging up all of his secrets. As the other Jon turned his piercing green eyes towards Tim they filled with a hint of melancholy. This did not infiltrate his voice however, which was calm and slightly ragged when he spoke,

“I’m sure you all have a lot of questions-”

“Questions? Yeah I have a lot of questions! How come my boss is standing over here and you- you’re over there but you look exactly like him just, like, older! And like you’ve been in a few fights!”

The new Jon sighed,

“This is going to take a lot of explaining, you might want to sit down for this.”

The group eventually decided to settle in Jon’s office although settle might not be the right word. Tim was pacing the room, eyes darting constantly between the two Jons. Sasha was wringing her hands in her lap and staring resolutely at the floor as if the other Jon would go away if she pretended he wasn’t there. Jon stood stock still, still staring at the new Jon as if he were a ghost and Martin, to no one’s surprise, had gone to make tea. In comparison the new Jon looked positively comfortable. He’d slumped down in Jon’s office chair, looking as if he’d been waiting to sit down for a long time. 

Once Martin was back with the tea, new Jon sat up straighter in his chair and looked at the four confused and slightly fearful faces in front of him. As much as he would have loved to just sit and relax and drink some tea for the first time in a long time, he knew he owed them an explanation. He still caught himself looking fondly at Martin as he took a sip of his perfectly made tea. He mentally scolded himself.

That's not him. He isn’t your Martin. It isn’t- You can’t- It’s not him.

Martin felt new Jon’s eyes on him and looked up to see him giving him soft smile,

“Thank you Martin,”

He said softly,

“This tea is perfect.”

Martin gave him a small smile in return. It felt odd, he realised, that he already seemed to trust this new Jon lookalike. He had no sense of who this person was, hell he didn’t even know if it was a human being. But something about his smile, his thank you, it all seemed so genuine, so human. But then again, Martin had always been one to trust and it usually didn’t end well for him. And the others were clearly suspicious of this stranger so Martin just tried to avoid the strangers oddly captivating eyes.

Jon took another few sips of his tea, feeling the warm liquid run down his throat. He was parched he realised, he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed before. He supposed he had been pretty busy. Of course Helen had to let him out in the tunnels and of course it was a part he wasn’t very familiar with. The worms had tipped him off pretty quickly as to the shift in time and he had no doubt that if the tunnels hadn’t dampened his beholding abilities they would have been setting off alarm bells in his head. And of course his lack of Knowledge meant he couldn’t cheat his way out of the tunnels. 

He had no idea of how long he’d been down there. Hours? Days maybe? However long it had been he bet Helen had had a blast watching him scramble around like a rat in a maze trying to find the trapdoor. No doubt she was still hanging around somewhere watching the show. She’d be loving this. Plus she still had Martin with her. 

Oh god Martin. Jon felt sick at the idea of him being stuck in those tunnels. Sure, he and Tim had made it out of them before but Michael had let them escape. And though Helen always seemed to like Martin or at least like him more than she liked Jon, her motivations were, as always, unclear when she had taken them into her tunnels. And now Martin was in there. Alone. Jon had to find him. Whatever it would take. 

“Who are you?”

Tim suddenly blurted out, finally stopping his pacing and turning to face the new Jon. Jon sighed. This one answer would open the floodgates and he knew it. He took a deep breath and looked Tim dead in the eyes.

“I’m Jonathan Sims.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, completely fucking with the timeline in this chapter: Wow I hope this doesn't have any consequences later :)
> 
> Also some of the coming chapters are very dialogue heavy so sorry if that's annoying and I know that me trying to come up with ways to differentiate the two Jon's is going to get old very quickly, I am currently trying to come up with a suitable solution to that problem.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as always y'all are the best ILY :)


	4. Chapter Four

“You can’t- You’re not- I’m Jonathan Sims.”

“And I am you. From the future obviously.”

“Oh so what?”

Tim scoffed,

“You just time travelled here from the future? You expect us to believe that? How do we know you’re not just some kind of imposter?”

“You don’t I suppose.”

“Do you have to be so cryptic? It’s not exactly helping your case.”

“I suppose not.”

Jon sighed heavily,

“I’m not really sure how I can prove it to you to be honest, though to answer your question Tim, I didn’t ‘just time travel here’ It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“Explain it to me then.”

Jon sighed again, really he was sighing a lot more than a regular person should be, but then he wasn’t exactly a regular person was he,

“I don’t fully understand how it works myself but I’ll do my best. I trust you all remember Michael?”

“Remember him? How could I ever forget?”

Sasha finally looked up from the floor, her voice sounded pained. Jon shot her a sympathetic look,

“Well we travelled through the hallways of something like him, named Helen. Turns out her hallways can do more than anticipated.”

“Why were you- wait. Who’s we?”

“Me and… me and Martin.”

“What about me and Sash?”

Jon stared at the desk, Sasha looked alarmed,

“What happens to us? Is it something bad?”

“Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Tim and Sasha seemed to have a silent conversation between them before turning back to Jon,

“We want to hear.”

Jon continued staring at the wood before him, he couldn’t quite bear to look them in the eyes,

“Sasha you… you get replaced. By a monster that replaces you and everyone’s memories of you so that they don’t notice that you’ve changed.”

Sasha bit her lip looking like she wanted to vomit,

“And what about me?”

Tim’s voice shook,

“You died in an explosion. You were stopping the circus. Avenging Danny.”

Something in Tim’s eyes flickered,

“Did I succeed?”

“Yes.”

“Did anyone else die?”

“No. I was in a coma for six months but everyone else was relatively unharmed.”

Tim nodded, satisfied, like he was happy that if he was going to go out it would be like that. Martin spoke up from his chair in the corner of the room,

“Wait, you said that I went into Helen’s hallways with you. Where am I now?”

Jon shut his eyes tight, holding back tears. He slowly raised his head to look at Martin,

“You’re still with Helen, I don’t know where. She- she separated us and then shoved me out here and now I don’t know where you are anymore except that you’re still in her hallways.”

“Oh so, I’m probably dead too then. Good to know.”

“No, I doubt she’ll kill you. But I still intend to get you out of there as soon as I can.”

He looked at Martin with an intensity in his eyes, one that Martin had never seen in Jon before. It felt odd hearing Jon talk about him like that. It felt like he was talking about a completely different person, and in a way, he was.

“Wait so why did Helen send you here?”

Sasha asked,

“Well we were looking to go back in time to about now, we just didn’t think it would go this badly.”

“Why did you want to go back in time?”

There it was. The million dollar question. The question that meant he would have to explain the future, what the world he came from was like and why they couldn’t let that happen.

“I was tricked into starting the apocalypse.”

“By who?”

Tim asked in disbelief,

“Elias.”

“Why would Elias want to start the apocalypse?”

“That’s a very long story that we don’t really have time to get into right now.”

“So… you came back in time to stop the apocalypse. How do we do it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Wow y’know it sounds like you did some great planning ahead for this.”

“We were running out of time.”

“You were so out of time that you couldn’t even figure what you were going to do when you got here?”

They were interrupted by the sound of a chair screeching across the floor. They all turned to see the other Jon, who the new Jon realised had been being very quiet, standing up from his seat,

“I need a cigarette.”

He rasped before slipping out of the door and disappearing into the hallway without waiting for a response. The rest of the group sat in an awkward silence that was eventually broken by Martin,

“I should… I should go and check on Jon.”

He started to stand but the other Jon raised his hand to stop him,

“I think you’d better just leave him.”

He said,

“He’ll come back soon.”

He spoke with such an authority that it didn’t even occur to the others to question him. Jon picked up his mug to take a sip of tea before realising it was empty. His still dry throat ached but it was more than that. Tea from Martin had always been a comfort but now that he couldn’t see him or even See him since he was in Helen’s hallways, he felt a desperation to cling to anything he had left of the man he loved.

Martin must have noticed his face because he quickly stood again,

“Does anyone want another cup of tea?”

All three of the others said yes so he made his way quickly to the small archive “kitchen” that was really just a table shoved up against one wall with a few appliances haphazardly strewn across it. The only part of the kitchen that was tidy was the far right of the table that held the tea and the kettle. This was Martin’s little oasis and he did his best to keep it as orderly as possible. It brought him an odd sense of comfort, as did making tea, so he painstakingly poured five cups of tea with shaking hands. 

He carefully carried one of the mugs outside and looked around for Jon. He was tucked carefully out of sight around the side of the building. He looked composed enough but the shaking of the cigarette in his hand betrayed his true feelings. Martin walked over to him and held out the tea. Jon put out his cigarette and silently accepted the beverage,

“I know this is kind of a dumb question but, are you okay?”

Martin asked tentatively. Jon looked up at him, his eyes were dull,

“Would you be?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said that I fucked with the timeline in the last chapter but I lied it's this chapter where I went off of the rails a bit so have fun with that.  
> Thank you for reading, all of y'all are the absolute sweetest  
> ILY :)  
> (Also Jon is not vibing in this and many other chapters so sorry to all the Jon kinnies out there)


	5. Chapter Five

Jon lay on his old cot in the archives. He hated having to stay in this place but he hardly had anywhere else to go. Martin had offered his couch but Jon had refused, he was already getting too attached to this Martin. He kept reminding himself over and over that this wasn’t his Martin. Not yet. And so instead of getting some actual rest in the warmth of Martin’s apartment he lay on an uncomfortable cot in the draft-filled, dusty old archive, a place that he had never wished to see again, and thought about his Martin. He thought about their stay in Daisy’s safehouse and their travels through the apocalypse but most of all he thought about Martin now, alone in Helen’s corridors. He thought about how he didn’t fight hard enough to stay with him, how Martin’s fears of being alone again were coming true. He tried for hours to See him even though he knew the eye couldn’t see into the hallways, even though after every try he just worsened the splitting headache it gave him. He tried until he passed out from exhaustion on that little cot and he didn’t wake until late the next morning.

The archive staff arrived early that morning. They hadn’t planned it, they just all showed up. Not wanting to wake Jon and not feeling the least bit inclined to actually get any work done they all sat around in an awkward, silent circle. Martin had once again fallen into his habit of making tea to deal with stress so they were all drinking cup after cup as they waited for Jon to wake. Sasha finally spoke, cutting through the tension,

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

“Huh?”

“The other Jon. Do you believe him?”

“Well it’d be one hell of a lie.”

Tim said,

“He’s telling the truth.”

The rest of the group turned towards Jon, his face was ashen and he looked rather wobbly. He clearly hadn’t slept, but neither had any of the others,

“How do you know?”

Sasha asked curiously, Jon got a strange look on his face,

“I-I’m not sure.”

“Careful Jon, soon you’ll start being as vague and spooky as your clone.”

Tim laughed,

“He’s not a clone,”

Jon bristled,

“And I am not spooky.”

Normally Tim might have pushed back but seeing Jon’s face he decided to drop it,

“What do you think he meant by apocalypse?”

Martin spoke up softly,

“Like what do you think happens?”

“I don’t know but if turns Jon into that it must be pretty bad.”

Jon opened his mouth to snap back but Tim beat him to it,

“I’m kidding Jon, calm down.”

Jon glared at Tim, he began to speak again but was once again cut off- this time by the other Jon entering the room. They all went quiet, watching him like you might watch a dangerous animal whose next move you were unsure of. Future Jon ignored this, pulling up a chair to their little group and flashing them all a smile,

“Morning. I would ask how you slept except clearly you didn’t.”

The group looked at him a little blankly,

“Sorry, this is probably still pretty weird for you isn’t it.”

“Is it not weird for you?”

Tim asked,

“I mean you’re sitting opposite your past self, does that not freak you out even a little?”

Jon thought for a second,

“I suppose it should,”

He conceded,

“But it doesn’t. I think I’m just getting pretty used to weird things happening by now.”

“Jon…”

Sasha stumbled slightly over the name,

“What’s the apocalypse like?”

Jon dropped his cheerful expression, his eyes growing dark,

“Bad.”

He paused,

“Really bad.”

“But like, what kinda apocalypse are we talking about?”

Tim asked,

“Like zombies, nuclear wasteland, a pandemic…”

“Not quite.”

Jon smiled,

“This ah… this may take some explaining.”

The group collectively scooted their chairs closer,

“Okay so there are fifteen main entities that feed off of humanity’s fear.”

“Fear entities, great.”

Tim cut in sarcastically,

“As if things weren’t bad enough. We already had Prentiss and now we’ve got to deal with weird dread powers?”

“Well Prentiss actually falls under one of the fears- The Corruption. She’s what we call an avatar. The avatars are the people, or things I guess, that carry out the entity's plans. Their rituals.”

“Rituals?”

“Each entity has a ritual that starts the apocalypse, what the apocalypse is like depends on which entity succeeds at it’s ritual.”

“Well which entity started the apocalypse you came from?”

“The Eye.”

“So Elias works for the eye?”

“The whole institute does really, especially the archives. I’m- I am an avatar for the eye.”

“Wait, wait, wait,”

Tim stopped him,

“You’re an avatar?”

Jon sighed heavily,

“Yes. I am an avatar of the eye. Not willingly but what can you do?”

“Sooo, what does that mean exactly?”

“Well the eye is focused on collecting or archiving knowledge so I can Know pretty much anything, I can also make people tell me things but if I don’t take or read statements I’ll die.”

The other Jon was looking pretty horrified at this.

“What are the other entities?”

Martin asked,

“Well some of the main ones are The Web, they’re manipulators, The Stranger, that’s who the circus work for, The Lonely,”

He glanced at Martin,

“That ones pretty self-explanatory. There’s The Extinction, also pretty easy to figure out, The Spiral, that's where Micheal and Helen come from, The flesh,”

He grimaced at that one,

“The Corruption- that’s Prentiss, The End, The Hunt, The Slaughter, The Desolation- they’re fire and destruction, The Vast, The Buried, The Dark and then of course, The Eye or The Beholding.”

Jon gave the group a moment of silence to process the information, they all looked rightfully freaked out. 

“Wait you were going to tell us about the apocalypse,”

Sasha said,

“So since The Eye started it, what’s it like?”

Jon sighed,

“Well since The Beholding likes to, well, behold stuff it split the world off into separate domains. Each domain is controlled by a different entity with The Eye ruling over, and watching over, all of it.”

“So just all of the entities are out there torturing people?”

Martin asked horrified,

“Yes.”

Jon responded,

“That is a way in which The Eye’s ritual is unique.”

He looked around the faces in front of him,

“I know this is a lot to process, maybe we should take a break and get some food or something?”

“Why not,”

Tim agreed,

“It’s not like we were going to get any work done anyway.”

Jon stood from his seat and stretched. He opened his mouth to speak before his eyes caught on a familiar yellow door on the opposite wall. A door that wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Get behind me.”

The others looked confused,

“Now.”

The four of them moved to stand behind Jon, finally noticing the door,

“Is that…?”

“Yes”

Jon replied as the door slowly swung open and a familiar figure stepped out, towering over them all. She flashed them a blinding smile,

“Hello Archivist. It’s so good to finally see you again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey lads, sorry for posting this a day late, I was with my friends for Halloween and I didn't think they'd appreciate me just whipping my laptop out to update my fic lol.  
> Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for 750 hits holy shit.  
> Sorry about the amount of exposition in this chapter, hopefully it's not too boring. Your reward for sitting through it is you finally get to see our favourite ex-real estate agent.  
> ILY have a spooky (and safe) Halloween :)


	6. Chapter Six

“What are you doing here Helen?”

Jon asked through gritted teeth,

“What, I’m not allowed to pop in just to say hello?”

She took a step closer,

“Besides, I just couldn’t miss out on a chance to see the whole gang together! I mean Sasha, I never even got to meet you! Or at least not in this form. And I won’t get to meet you, Tim and Martin for so long.”

She let out a disturbing laugh,

“Gosh you all look so little,”

Helen cooed,

“Like tiny naive babies.”

She laughed again,

“You know Jon, I thought you of all people would be happy to see me! Afterall I still have something you want, or should I say someone. Have you missed him? I’ve loved having him as my little guest.”

“Where is Martin.”

Jon asked forcefully, Helen just laughed,

“I thought you knew better than to try to compel me Archivist.”

Her voice was slightly more menacing now,

“You do know how sharp my hands can be.”

Her voice cleared again and her smile grew wider still if that was even possible,

“But anyway, on the subject of Martin, I assume you want him back?”

“I assume that that question is rhetorical?”

Jon edged,

“You always have been a funny one Archivist, but I suppose you could have him back. I was getting so bored listening to you drone on about the fears and their avatars blah, blah, blah. Hopefully having him will add a little bit more spice.”

“This isn’t a reality show.”

“Really? Well it should be. Watching you all is very entertaining.”

Helen reopened the yellow door behind her,

“Right, well, I’ll just go fetch him then. And Jon dear? If you're going to dump exposition do try and add a little drama into it won’t you?” 

She looked at the others crowded behind Jon,

“It was lovely to meet you Sasha dear and I’ll see the rest of you later. Ciao!”

She gave them a little wave, stepped through her door and closed it behind her. It slowly sunk back, dissolving into the wall. They all let out the breath they’d been holding,

“Well, she certainly was something.”

Sasha said,

“Yes, she’s always like that unfortunately.”

“I think I preferred Michael,”

Tim said,

“Sure he wanted to kill us but at least he was upfront about it. She’s too friendly.”

“Yeah that’s- hold on, the door’s back.”

They all looked to see to see that the yellow door was indeed back. It appeared to be in the same spot only Sasha swore it had been slightly further to the right, or was it to the left? The door once again began to open slowly, though slightly less ominously this time. Jon held his breath.

Was it really him? 

He strained his eyes, literally and figuratively, to see what, or who, would come through it. The door was fully open now and a silhouette could be seen emerging,

“Jon? Is that you?”

The room was silent as Martin stepped through into the archives and the little yellow door door disappeared behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the shorter chapter, sometimes you just gotta end a chapter early to get a properly crisp cliffhanger.  
> I hope you enjoyed seeing Helen, the amount of serotonin I got from writing her was *chef's kiss* I love my wife.  
> Are y'all excited for next week? Because I am ;)  
> Thank you to all of my lovely of my lovely commenters, you guys are the sweetest and own my entire heart and being able to recognise usernames and know that people are enjoying following along is the best thing ever. (Also some of y'all are really funny and just so you know if I find you funny I *will* be screenshotting your comments because you gotta serotonin somehow right ladies)  
> As always stay safe ILY and hang in there all you Americans out there, I am feeling for y'all rn.  
> (P.s I have no idea if Tim and Helen ever actually meet in canon so if they didn't just pretend they did I guess?)


	7. Chapter Seven

“Martin! Oh thank god!”

Jon threw his arms around the bigger man and pulled him into a tight embrace,

“Thank god,”

He repeated softly,

“I was so worried! She- she seperated us and then she shoved me out here and I couldn’t See you because you were in the hallways and I was so worried about you-”

Martin chuckled,

“It’s okay Jon, I’m here now.”

The archive staff stared at the reuniting pair. Tim and Sasha looked at each other with big grins, 

Fucking finally

Jon, meanwhile, was standing on the edge of the group, short circuiting. He stared at himself, hugging Martin like he never wanted to let go and tried to ignore the butterflies that raced around his stomach. They were probably just still friends right? Just close friends. Afterall, that feeling that he got around Martin wasn’t romantic, no of course not. It was Martin for fuck’s sake, just stupid useless Martin who let a dog into the archives and couldn’t even research a statement properly. Future him and Martin were just good friends and that was fine, that was what he wanted. Definitely.

Martin could feel his cheeks heating up. He couldn’t help but feel like he was intruding on a private moment even though he knew that was ridiculous, It was literally him that was in front of him hugging Jon. Hugging Jon? He didn’t know what to think, Jon didn’t even like him in the time he was living in. How they got from Jon degrading Martin at every opportunity to looking at each other like that he had no idea.

The two finally broke apart. Future Jon looked happier than the others had ever seen him. Martin turned to see the others and let out a sigh, he didn’t look surprised though,

“Really Jon?”

He turned back to the man next to him,

“You couldn’t stay hidden for any time at all could you?”

He laughed,

“So much for subtlety.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Jon smiled back,

“But in my defense the trapdoor to the tunnels was blocked, it’s hard to be subtle when you’re busting a door down.”

“You could have done it at night when no one was here.”

Future Martin pointed out,

“I thought it was night! Time is hard to keep track of down there.”

Future Martin gave a fond chuckle

“Okay. What have you told them then?”

“Pretty much everything.”

“And how’d they take it?”

“We are still here you know.”

“God I forgot how grumpy you used to be Jon.”

Future Martin laughed. Jon spluttered indignantly,

"Wait, so if we have two Jons now and two Martins, what are we supposed to call you?"

"You could call one of us Jonathan I suppose."

Future Jon indicated to himself and the other Jon,

"Nah that's too long, too much work. What if we call you old Jon?"

"I'm in my mid thirties?"

"Fine. Older Jon."

"No."

"Future Jon and Martin?"

"That's a bit of a mouthful."

"Jon and Martin two?"

"That sounds stupid."

"Do you have a better suggestion?"

Jon two paused for a second before sighing,

"No."

"Alrighty, Jon and Martin two it is!"

Tim grinned,

"This is ridiculous."

Jon two muttered but he was smiling. Sasha cleared her throat to interrupt,

"So now that that's out of the way, do we have a plan or?"

"We hadn't really thought that far ahead if I'm honest."

Jon admitted,

"But we'll almost definitely have to take out Jonah."

"But Jonah is inhabiting Elias' body so surely we have to kill him?”

“But then we run the risk that Jonah will be able to just inhabit another body.”

“Yeah but if we just kill the Jonah in the panopticon will he still be able to live through Elias’ body? And what about the original Elias who’s body is being puppeted around, will he die?”

“Sorry who’s Jonah?”

Martin interrupted the discussion. Martin two turned to Jon two with raised eyebrows,

“I told them pretty much everything?”

“Yes alright I might have left a few things out. In my defense, it’s pretty easy to miss details when you’re trying to explain fear powers and an entire apocalypse.”

“I feel like Jonah is a pretty big detail to miss.”

“Wait… Jonah like Jonah Magnus? The founder?”

“I can see why Gertrude wanted you to be the archivist.”

Jon two mused. Sasha choked slightly,

“Excuse me?”

Jon two waved her off,

“I’ll tell you later. But yes, Jonah as in Jonah Magnus.”

“Is he not dead?”

Tim asked,

“No. There’s a reason Elias went from a dropout stoner to the head of the institute overnight.”

“So what, he’s controlling Elias or something?”

Jon said,

“Let’s just say that Elias’ eyes weren’t green until his promotion.”

The group shuddered,

“Gross. How do we get rid of Jonah then?”

“Well his original body is in the centre of the tunnels but we might have to kill Elias as well to make sure he’s completely gone.”

“No.”

Martin two said firmly,

“Unless we know for sure that the original Elias isn’t still in there we can’t just kill him. And I’m assuming that you can’t See enough around Elias to know.”

“I can’t.”

Jon two agreed,

“But we can’t just leave him if it means Jonah might survive. He might die when we kill Jonah anyway!”

“Well we can’t just risk it! I’m not killing an innocent man.”

The archive staff looked back and forth between the pair as they argued. It was strange for all of them to see Martin standing up to Jon and even stranger to see Jon taking it.

“Look Martin I don’t like it either but what else can we do?”

Jon two pleaded,

“Wait, so Jonah replaced Elias’ eyes, right?”

Jon asked apprehensively,

“So, if we,”

He grimaced,

“Removed his eyes…”

“It could destroy Jonah without killing Elias.”

Jon two finished,

“That sound… disgusting, but like it might work.”

Sasha said,

“It would be best to take care of both at the same time so we’d have to be in two groups.”

Jon two said,

“I’d have to lead the Jonah group because I’m the only one who could find the way to the panopticon.”

“Then I should probably be in the Elias group,”

Martin two said,

“It would be best to have one of us per group. Plus there’s no way I’m going back to the panopticon”

“Okay, what about the rest of us?”

Martin asked,

“Well I dibs going into the tunnels.”

Sasha said,

“There’s no way in hell I’m removing a man’s eyeballs.”

“Well the eye thing was my idea so I guess I can go with that group.”

Jon said. He tried to sound like he was only begrudgingly agreeing but in reality, the idea of going into the tunnels scared Jon. Plus he considered anytime away from his future self a win.

“I can go with that group too.”

Martin volunteered, he had no idea what had happened to him in the panopticon but he did not plan on finding out. Plus he wasn’t entirely over finding a dead body the last time he ahd been down there.

“Okay so that just leaves Tim with us I guess.”

Jon two said,

“Uh uh no way.”

Tim protested,

“There is no way in hell I’m going down there. It was bad enough going down there to escape from Prentiss, I am not doing that again. At least last time I was high enough from the CO2 to not remember it fully.”

“Okay but that leaves us with a group of four and a group of two, that doesn’t really work.”

Martin two said, Martin sighed,

“I can go with the other group I guess.”

“No wait, I have an idea.”

Jon two smiled. He turned to Jon,

“Do you have your phone with you?”

“Yes, why?”

“I need it. I think It’s time to call on an old friend.”

Jon reluctantly handed over his phone. Jon two went straight to his contacts and pressed a very familiar name. The phone only rang for three seconds before they picked up,

“Hey Georgie, It’s Jon… I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me writing this chapter: Fuck what names have I not already seen be used in time travel fics????  
> How we feeling fellow Helen simps? Looks like I posted my Helen content a week early huh?  
> Anyway enjoy some Future Martin (and Jon having a crisis).  
> Thank you so much for over 1000 hits holy shit.  
> As always ILY, stay safe y'all <3  
> (P.S I'm officially out of prewritten chapters, yikes.)


	8. Chapter Eight

Georgie looked between the two Jons, a look of slight disbelief on her face before finally addressing Jon,

“So what you’re trying to tell me is that this is you from the future who came back because he caused the apocalypse in conjunction with evil fear entities and now you both need me to help you kill your boss who’s actually been alive for centuries and has just been swapping bodies to avoid suspicion.”

“Yeah that’s pretty much it.”

Georgie shrugged,

“Yeah sure, I can help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A proper chapter will be up straight after this one, I just did it this way for my own convenience (And I thought it was kinda funny).


	9. Chapter Nine

“Okay here’s the plan: Me, Sasha and Georgie will make our way to the panopticon and kill Jonah. While we’re doing that, Martin, Jon, Martin two and Tim will ambush Elias in his office. Two of you will have to hold him down while the other two… remove his eyes. It shouldn’t be too hard to overpower him because since he’s connected to Jonah, us killing him will likely somewhat incapacitate Elias. Are we all ready?”

“God, I guess so.”

Sasha said,

“As ready as we ever will be.”

Jon said grimly,

“Alright then.”

Jon two said,

“It’s getting pretty late so we’ll begin tomorrow. You should all at least try to get some rest.”

Tim snorted but he didn’t say anything. Jon two sighed,

“I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

It wasn’t until all the assistants had gone home that Jon two and Martin two finally got a chance to talk. Jon two had just finished reading some statements in Jon’s office when Martin two knocked gently on the door,

“Hey, are you done?”

“Yes, come in Martin. Or should I say Martin two?”

Jon two smirked. Martin two gave him a fond look as he entered,

“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very.”

Martin two and Jon two sat in silence for a moment as Martin pulled a seat up to the desk,

“I really missed you.”

Jon said softly, breaking the silence.

“I missed you too Jon, but we’re together now.”

Martin reached out and took Jon’s hand and Jon gripped Martin’s hand back tightly. They fell back into a comfortable silence. There was no sound in the archives anymore aside from the gentle ticking of the clock. It was peaceful. A welcome break from the world they had come from.

“Jon?”

“Yes?”

“What happens to us if we pull this off?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean we’re from the future where Elias wins, so, if we stop that future from happening, what happens to us? Will we… die? Or something?”

“I don’t know.”

Jon mused,

“Well there’s something that doesn’t happen very often.”

“Yes, I suppose it doesn’t.”

Jon said thoughtfully. He paused before saying,

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to us if we kill Jonah but… even if we do die or disappear or something, I think that’s still a whole lot better than the apocalypse happening.”

“I mean obviously.”

“Whatever happens, I think it’s worth it. It’s worth it to give our past selves another shot at living, and maybe we’ll get some things right this time.”

Martin let out a deep breath,

“You’re right. We’re doing this for them. And the rest of humanity I guess.”

“You know, I never told you sorry Martin.”

“For what?”

Jon laughed,

“Everything? I mean being back here, seeing how I acted… I was a dick to everyone but I was the worst to you. It hurts seeing how I used to treat from the outside.”

“It’s okay-”

“No. It’s not.”

Jon cut Martin off,

“I should never have treated you like that and I certainly never deserved your forgiveness. I don’t deserve you.”

“Hey,”

Martin shifted slightly so his eyes met Jon’s,

“Yes you treated me badly but you have changed Jon, and I appreciate you apologizing but you have to let me forgive you. Otherwise neither of us are going to move forward.”

“You’re right. But I really am sorry Martin.”

“I know.”

Martin stood and walked to Jon’s side of the desk, wrapping him up in a hug,

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He let go of Jon and straightened up,

“Now, how about we go over the plan one last time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is this weeks proper chapter. Enjoy some soft Jonmartin, we all deserve it.  
> I went to a local art show today and w o w I wish I actually had money because I had to leave behind some of the best artwork I've ever seen, so catch me googling the artist and seeing if I can get a print of one that's a little more in budget.  
> Anyway, as always stay safe ILY :)

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise for this chapter being so short, it's mostly set up for everything that comes next, the chapters afterwards get quite a bit longer than this. This is my first published fic so I would appreciate any feedback you guys have! I hope you enjoyed reading, the next chapter will be up soon :) (This fic is also set in a weird time point, the Prentiss attack has happened but Sasha is still Sasha and Jon hasn't gone full conspiracy theorist. I am so sorry if this is confusing.)


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